SHIELD AVERAGES

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27874, 24 January 1956, Page 14

SHIELD AVERAGES

L. S. M. MILLER TOP WITH 61.2

D. D. BEARD TAKES BOWLING HONOURS

Scoring 429 runs in eight innings, the Wellington batsman, L. S. M. Miller, topped the batting averages in the Plunket Shield series with 61.2. He scored 29 more runs than Canterbury’s wicket-keeper-batsman. S. C. Guillen, who was second with 57.1.

Canterbury, although it won the shield on points and on team averages, could only secure this one place in the first eight, the other seven places being divided among Wellington and Auckland. In the bowling averages, D. D. Beard, with 10.1. was by far the best, with M. E. Chapple—previously one of Canterbury’s star batsmen and now in the new role of bowler—taking second place not far behind Beard with 13.8. Most wickets were taken by R. W. Blair (Central Districts*. Off 193.3 overs he took 34 wickets for 621 runs.

In the field, B. Turner (Central Districts) had no equals, taking nine catches. Canterbury's fielding was also very good, five players taking at least five catches. I Sinclair and J. W. Darcy each took six, and Guillen, behind the stumps, took seven. Guillen, with seven catches and three stumpfngs, was the most successful wicket keeper. The following are the averages:— Batting

In. N.O. H.S. Agg. Av. L. S. Miller (W.) 8 1 144 429 61.2 S. C. Guillen (C.) 8 1 118 400 57.1 T. S. Hambrook (A.) 7 0 104 311 44.4 J. E. F. Beck (W.) 7 0 149 300 42.8 R. T. Barber (W.) 7 0 77 298 42.5 J. K. Everest (A.) 7 2 69 212 42.4 D. D. Taylor <A.) 7 0 75 254 36.2 B. J. Postles (A.) 8 M. E. Chapple 2 63* 214 35.6 (C.) 8 2 50 210 35.0 R. T. Dowker (C.) 8 B. A. Haworth 2 60 197 32.8 (C.) 8 0 123 237 29.6 D. D. Beard (C.D.) 8 1 70* 195 27.8 E. M. Meuli (C.D.) 8 0 75 204 25.5 K. F. Smith (C.D.) 8 0 54 199 24.8 G. D. Alabaster (O.) ? 0 81 197 24.6 (An asterisk denotes not out.) Bowling O. M. R. Av. D. D. Beard (C.D.) 199.4 75 283 23 10:1 M. E. Chapple (C.) 120 49 208 15 13.8 W. D. Frame (O.) 74.5 19 225 16 14.6 I. McK. Sinclair (C.) 192.3 70 398 22 18.9 R. W. Blair (C.D.) 193.3 41 621 34 18.2 A. Lissette (A.) 132 41 299 16 18.6 D. Morrison (A.) 202.6 68 422 22 19.1 J. Turnbull (A.) 223.5 61 526 23 22.4 E. W. Dempster (W.) 147 52 294 13 22.6 F. J. Cameron (O.) 145 37 334 14 23.8 D. Spence (C.D.) 56.3 7 215 9 23.8 L. A. Clark (W.) 181.5 77 318 13 24.4 E. Dunn (A.) 144 57 338 13 26.0